Like Father, Like Sons for Music-loving Ritchie

Glasgow-based PR fella, Mike Ritchie, supplied a first person feature for Tuesday’s Daily Record about his outings to live music with his sons, Steven and Martin – the day he was heading for the Bruce Springsteen gig at Hampden Park.

The Record feature was his breezy account of different generations going to shows together more than ever before.

Mike wrote that, for him, “gig going got even better” when his elder boys, now 30 and 27 and veterans of Glastonbury and T in the Park, started teaming up with him. He’s lost count of the number of such outings now.

Mike told allmediascotland that the generation gap only kicked in when a show was over – he headed for home, while the night was just starting for his boys.

Mike has been invited to chat about it on BBC Radio Scotland’s Fred MacAulay Show, this morning.

Comment: Perhaps Mike should try sampling live music at the cutting edge of today's bands. I've recently joined my 15-year-old son, Christopher, at gigs by Slipknot, Velvet Revolver and Metallica. I had no problems about going with Chris to see the bands. At Metallica, though, he was keen to get as near the front as possible. Which was fine until all these kids started to rush around in a cirle that threatened to turn into some kind of human vortex. Welcome to the mosh pit.

So I decided to take a few steps back and found myself in what I shall refer to as the 'twenty-something' zone. The mosh pit was still a bit too close for comfort so I took a few more steps back and found myself in the 'thirty-something' zone. A bit more tolerable but still too close for comfort.

So I kept on backtracking until I eventually found myself at the back of the hall along with all the other dinosaur dads nursing nothing stronger than a Coke.

And I swear I saw a neon sign flashing – if it's too loud, get the hell out of here. Time I think to hang up the denim jacket and look out the pipe and slippers…